


Moving on, and into a new house

by ImmediatelyWriting



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ash Lynx Lives, Ash Lynx and Okumura Eiji Go to Japan, Banana Fish Ending Fix-It, Boys In Love, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Dancing, Dancing and Singing, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Feel-good, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Healing, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Moving In Together, Moving On, Paint Battle, Pizza, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Romance, Sharing a Bed, Short, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Spoilers, Teasing, gay relationship, sharing a blanket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27527488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImmediatelyWriting/pseuds/ImmediatelyWriting
Summary: Two years ago, Eiji wouldn't think he'd be standing in the middle of a new house that officially belonged to him… but he is!And today he and Ash will be moving in for real.The walls still need to be painted and their boxes have to be unpacked if they don’t want to spend another day in an empty house, but there’s also time for paint battles, pizza, games and a dance party in the middle of their new living room.Or: Eiji and Ash goofing around while moving into their new house.
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 5
Kudos: 98





	Moving on, and into a new house

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ihopethelightwillshineupon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihopethelightwillshineupon/gifts).



> Hey there!
> 
> Before deciding to write this fix-it fanfiction for the ending of Banana Fish, I asked my older sister what kind of Banana Fish fanfiction she'd like to read. She said something cute and maybe a little funny, and send me a couple of prompts to use for inspiration.  
> I gifted this work to my sister (ihopethelightwillshineupon), because she gave me a big part of the inspiration for this story.  
> Thanks, Zoë!!!
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy reading about Ash and Eiji being cute!
> 
> Love, Noa <3

It is a freezing winter day; Eiji's bunny slippers are just not warm enough for these snowy morning hours and even a hot cup of coffee isn't enough to stop his hands from shaking. Maybe it's the cold, but it could also be nerves making him shiver like this. 

His reflection in the pitch black fluid might not have changed so much in the past two years, but he has grown up so much when you look at the inside. 

Never in his entire life Eiji thought this day would come, but it's finally here; he's surrounded by bare walls and an empty rooms, and there are only few things that have already been unpacked.

Two years ago, Eiji wouldn't think he'd be standing in the middle of a new house that officially belonged to him. 

No, not at all; two years ago, Eiji had cried himself to sleep again, dreaming of Ash who'd gone completely radio silent after Eiji left America. Eiji dreamt about hugging him, maybe even kissing, every night and sometimes even during the day causing him to be completely unable to focus on anything else. 

For months Eiji thought that Ash had died, because even Max hadn't heard of Ash anymore. 

And when he received a call from Max four months after returning to Japan, he thought it was bad news, but he was soon proofed wrong; Max told Eiji that Ash had been released from the hospital and now was on way to Japan. Even though the news about Ash being hospitalized because of a stab wound in the side came as a shock, Eiji couldn't be happier to see Ash when arriving at the airport.

Finally he was able to hold Ash in his arms. 

And a few weeks ago they decided to buy a house together. They aren't living in Eiji's parents’ basement anymore, instead they have a house of their own, just a half an hour ride outside of Izumo. 

They've slept there tonight and Eiji does have to admit to himself that he didn't have a good sleep on a thin futon in the completely new house. But he's sure that once they've made it look a little more homey today, he's going to sleep better than tonight. 

His lack of sleep makes him feel a lot colder than usually and, even though he knows he has to start making breakfast for when Ash finally wakes up, he wish he could crawl underneath the warm blankets again for just a little longer. Instead of doing that, he gets out the loaf of bread he and Ash got at the bakery around the corner when they had just arrived. He also takes some meat, cheese and lettuce from a cool box before making breakfast for both him and Ash. 

He also wraps his cold hands around the cardboard cup to see if Ash's coffee, wherefore he just risked being seen outside in his sweatpants, oversized hoodie and bunny slippers, is still warm.

Eiji places all of it on the kitchen counter, because that's the only table-like furniture that they have in range right now, and shuffles to the bedroom. 

The entire room is lit up by white light from outside, but Ash is somehow still snoring. With the blanket wrapped all around him and his unruly hair pointing in all directions, he's sleeping just as deep as usually.

Eiji chuckles happily; he's so glad he can see this every morning.

Seeing him so calm feels almost unnatural after what Ash has gone through in the past, and because he's looking so happy and calm right now Eiji almost feels bad for waking his boyfriend up. Unfortunately, he has to if they want to be able to get the painting of everything done today. 

"Ash." Eiji's voice is just loud enough to wake a normal person up, but not Ash; he has the habit of sleeping right through Eiji's calmer wake-up-calls. 

Eiji sighs, lays his hand on Ash shoulder and shakes him very hard, but Ash's eyes won't open. Fortunately, Eiji's gotten used to this over the years and he knows exactly what the next step is; something very cold it is. 

Usually he'd go to the bathroom and soak a towel in cold water, but since it's snowing outside he could just as well go a step further. 

With his empty cardboard cup in his hand, Eiji scoops some fresh snow from their little driveway. He fills it to the brim with ice cold snow before marching back towards the bedroom where he dumps the entire cup's content onto Ash's face. 

He's up in an instant, shooting upright from under the blankets as the snow slowly drips into his T-shirt. Ash lets out a groan, complaining about the ice that's melting all over his chest. 

"Morning sleepyhead," Eiji says, pressing a quick kiss on Ash's ice-cold cheek before getting on his feet again. "Breakfast is ready, are you coming?"

Ash doesn't reply immediately, probably because he hasn't fully registered that it's morning already.

Eiji can't wait until Ash has also woken up fully before starting to eat breakfast; he's been up for hours already and his stomach is killing him. He also knows that if he goes to the kitchen, Ash will probably follow soon. 

He's right, because when he's sitting on the counter with his sandwich half in his mouth, footsteps sound behind him. 

A groan followed by a crackly voice saying something about a hurting back make it clear that Ash has entered the kitchen... finally. 

"You Japanese and your stupid thin mattresses," Ash whines before taking a large gulp of his coffee. 

Ash clearly isn't completely awake just yet, and it probably will last another hour until he is.

Everything about Ash is perfect according to Eiji, and he would never want to remove anything that makes Ash the guy he is... but he could do without the terrible morning mood. 

After eating his sandwich, and complaining about it being too bland without mayonnaise, and drinking all of his "way too bitter" coffee, Ash is finally awake enough to start the day. 

In the meantime, Eiji has already started laying the plastic sheets on the floor so they could start painting as soon as Ash was done being extremely picky about his breakfast. 

Eiji is taking one last look at the pale greenish grey walls when Ash steps back into the room. He's wearing a uniform that looks more like a garbage bag than something that's specially made for painting. 

While Ash had to go overboard and buy the plastic outfit at the same hardware store where they bought their paint supplies, Eiji went with an old fluorescing pink rain suit that might or might not have been his mom's before she handed it to him four years ago.

"Ready for paint?" Ash asks, holding the two buckets of paint they chose to be perfect for the walls of their new living room. 

They didn't want to paint the walls at first, but they really wanted to at least get rid of the green living room; it didn't suit their style.

"Yep," Eiji replies, grinning while snapping a picture of Ash wearing the plastic suit. 

Ash puts down the buckets and cracks the lids off them, already splattering white and dark red paint all over the place. If it hadn't been for the plastic sheets covering the wood, they would've needed a new floor as well. 

"So." Ash thoughtfully taps a thick paintbrush against his chin while looking at the empty living room. "You're sure we should do the biggest wall white and not red?"

Eiji nods, he'd been scrolling through Pinterest all night before he came up with the idea for their living room. Three walls in the deep Bordeaux red, leaving one wall white. 

"It will look better that way," Eiji explains, while picking up one of the buckets and carefully pouring the red paint into a paint pan. "With our couch being red and all, red on red is a no go."

Ash chuckles before asking Eiji when he became an interior designer. 

"Very funny, Ash." Eiji fakes a sarcastic laugh before sticking his roller into the paint and putting the first stroke of red on the wall. 

Ash soon starts painting too, being a very inefficient painter as he stands right beside Eiji. He keeps nudging Eiji in the side, eventually causing Eiji to break out in frantic laughter. 

"Stop it!" Eiji shrieks in between laughter. 

Ash pouts before asking, "Stop what? This?" before poking Eiji's side with his finger. 

"Yes, _that_!"

Ash puts down his paint roller and starts tickling Eiji without showing any mercy when Eiji falls to the floor, clenching his stomach and gasping for air. 

"Sssstop!" Eiji manages to say before bursting out in uncontrollable laughter again.

Ash is ready to attack again; Eiji can see the bloodlust in his eyes as he leans forward while wiggling his fingers aggressively. But Eiji can just reach the perfect weapon that was lying on the ground.

He wraps his hands around the handle of the paintbrush they used to mix the paint, and closes his eyes tightly while he counterattacks. 

Eiji opens his eyes when his weapon comes to an abrupt halt. At first he's afraid that the fearless lynx has stopped Eiji's perfect attack, but that isn't the case.

Eiji snorts when he sees the red paint smeared all across Ash's face.

"Ouch," Ash mumbles while using his sleeve to wipe of some of the thick globs of paint. "That hurt."

_The_ great, strong, undefeatable Ash Lynx admitting that being smacked in the face with a paintbrush hurts, that's the same thing as victory for Eiji.

Eiji crawls back onto his feet, still swaying a little after the big battle they just fought, and looks down on Ash's arched posture that admits defeat without needing any words. 

Proud of his victory, Eiji picks up his roller again and continues painting the wall while gloating about how victorious he was. 

"I was all like _swoosh_!" Eiji tells Ash, making it clear that Eiji has finally outsmarted a guy with an IQ of two-hundred. "And you had no clue!"

It isn't until Eiji feels an unsettling shiver running down his spine that he realized he hasn't quite slain the beast just yet. 

He squeaks when he turns around and immediately gets an entire pan worth of paint splattered in his face. Just like when Ash pranked Eiji by smacking him in the face with a creamy pie, there's wet stuff all over him; red paint covers face, runs down into his shirt and sticks in his hair. It's making his eyelashes clump together and Eiji can barely see anything, but he's not miserable enough to not come up with a counterattack. 

Using the paint that's in his own hair, Eiji is able to strike again; taking the amazing Ash down with his own poison. 

But it's not like they're finished there, both are still able to fight until they're both lying on the ground unable to get up. The stinging of laughter in Eiji's stomach has gotten too much to bare and, since they're both covered in equal amounts of red and white paint, Ash seems to accept ending it with a tie.

It's not like they could go on for forever, because by wasting this much paint they might end up with too much spilled paint to finish painting the walls. 

Eiji rolls onto his side, resting on his hand while looking at Ash who's lying face first onto the floor. It doesn't look comfortable, almost like Ash is trying to break his nose again. 

Ash mumbles something inaudible, but Eiji can already guess what Ash is complaining about. 

"Huh?" Eiji replies. 

Ash turns his face to Eiji, his forehead is completely red from pressing it against the floor for too long. Even though Ash sounds completely serious when he asks, "I won, right?" Eiji can't help but laugh; there's no way he can take Ash serious when he's covered in partially dried paint like he is now. 

"Yeah, sure," Eiji says. "But only if you admit that I defeated you."

Eiji gets back on his feet again and picks up his paint roller; they have to get these walls painted one way or another. 

"That's--" Ash doesn't even finish his sentence; he'd rather lose to Eiji than admit defeat, even though doing either of both would mean victory for Eiji. 

Instead of saying anything, he gets up as well and both the guys turn their attention to painting again. Even though they're both pretty tired because of their big battle, and therefore silent, they can't help but giggle when their eyes meet every once in a while.

After hours of sweating and trying not to scratch at the itchy patches of paint, Eiji has finally finished painting the second layer of the by him claimed walls.

He has beat Ash with both the quality of his paint job and he also has finished quicker, leaving him the chance to tease him about being slow.

Ash finishes painting soon too, which only leaves the drying, which will take a while so they'll have to find ways to spend their time in this pretty empty house with no connection to the Wi-Fi whatsoever.

Eiji watches Ash as he takes off the plastic suit that was supposed to keep his clothes clean, but it reveals a mess of red paint splatters all over Ash's white T-shirt instead. 

"Wow, haven't seen you looking like that for a while," Eiji says, giggling.

Ash looks up at him. He frowns in confusion, clearly not seeing this the same way that Eiji does. 

"Yeah." Eiji grins daringly before adding, "You look like you've just walked out of a gun battle."

Ash's mouth opens before he gasps offendedly. 

" _I_ look like I've just walked out of a battle?" he asks in a dramatic tone. "Have you taken a look at yourself!?"

Eiji looks down at the fluorescent pink rain suit and realizes that Ash might be kind of right; he's covered in red paint and it's everywhere, including on his skin, drying in his hair and making blots inside of the jacket.

The two guys laugh at their own bad joke, even rolling through the paint that was still on the ground in the process. 

It takes them a little time before deciding to get on their feet again, because both of them are exhausted after painting all morning and part of the afternoon. 

"I'm starving," Ash states while trying to peel some of the red paint off his arm.

Eiji nods; they've skipped lunch, because they didn't feel hungry when they were having fun painting the walls. But now Eiji's stomach is growling more than ever before. 

Ash gets starts walking in the direction of the kitchen while asking, "Do we have something left to eat?" 

"No, I kind of used our last bread for breakfast," Eiji admits. "We'll have to order some food, I guess."

Eiji watched Ash pace up and down the room and he knows Ash isn't happy with this turn of events.

They never order food or go out for dinner unless they really have to. Ash has never been a big fan of the traditional Japanese food and he doesn't think the American-style food tastes American enough.

It has gotten to the point that Eiji has kind of given up on cooking normal; he makes American dishes for his picky boyfriend most of the time, sometimes with a Japanese twist and sometimes just the way he knows Ash ate them when going to a snack bar. 

He knows he should've saved some bread for lunch, but it wouldn't be very tasty anymore after lying in the strong scent of paint all day; it would be like eating the wall. 

"We could get burgers and French fries at McDonalds?" Eiji suggests. 

Ash immediately shakes his head and starts complaining about how the meat is way too rubbery and there are too many greens on these hamburgers and they're by far not saucy enough. 

Eiji takes a deep breath and eventually suggests the only option they'd have if they want to eat something they both like. 

"What about pizza?"

Ash looks up, his eyes sparkle with enthusiasm.

Eiji on the other hand feels like a failure; after banning Ash from going pizza huts, because Ash was ordering the fatty things more often than not. 

At first he let Ash eat everything that made him feel good, because for the first months he saw a homesick guy who had already been stripped off his trusty gun and deadly lifestyle, all Eiji could give him was food that made him feel like being back where he'd lived for over eighteen years. 

"Really?" Ash's voice squeaks happily. "Oh Eiji, you're the best!"

He runs at Eiji and plants a kiss on his forehead before hugging him tightly. 

Eiji can basically feel Ash's enthusiasm through this embrace, which makes him giggle. It's been so long since last time he saw Ash being this enthusiastic about food, because even though he tends to be positive about Eiji's "Japamerican" cooking, Ash still likes the traditional fatty fast food the best. And, well, pizza is the closest he can get under supervision of Eiji. 

"Yeah, yeah," Eiji mumbles, while pushing Ash off him. "But don't get too excited!"

Ash tilts his head like a little puppy would when begging for leftovers. 

Eiji makes sure to sound stern while saying, "It'll _only_ be for this _one_ time, okay?" but almost immediately burst out in laughter afterwards. 

Ash salutes before saying, "Yes, onii-chan." After that he marches out of sight, yelling that he's going to take a shower even though he's walking towards their little garden and not to the bathroom. 

Eiji chuckles and rolls his eyes while wondering how he's still not fully used to Ash's childish behavior and wild attitude. 

While Ash is using the garden hose to rinse himself off, even though it's freezing outside and he's sure to catch a cold this way, Eiji orders a couple of pizzas from Ash's favorite place. He also cleans up the mess of spilled paint and plastic sheets before heading towards their partially finished bathroom where he uses soap and lukewarm water to clean himself. 

He has to run through the entire house only three minutes after he stepped in the shower, because the doorbell rang and there's no way Ash has heard it all the way to the garden. 

Eiji quickly tries to get as much of the soap out of his hair before turning off the tap and wrapping a big towel around himself. Because of the water, he almost trips on his way to the front door, but he manages to open the door before the delivery guy decides to leave. 

"I have a pizza delivery for you, sir," the underpaid teenager says while presenting Eiji the pizza boxes and a check.

Eiji smiles, but feels really uncomfortable while paying for the pizzas. Not because it's cold and he's all shaky, but because the delivery guy is staring at him. Of course, it's not every day you see a twenty-one year old with red splatters and soap all over him; Eiji probably still looks like he murdered the neighbor’s cat or something like that. 

When he can finally take the pizzas and close the door, Eiji feels like he can breathe again; never again will he order food right before stepping in the shower. 

With the towel still wrapped around his waist, Eiji walks to the garden where he lets Ash know the food is ready. "We can eat as soon as I'm done showering, okay?"

Ash doesn't turn around when he mumbles something like, "let me give you a little help" and less than a second later Eiji is being sprayed with a cold beam of water. With how icy this hose-water feels, Eiji suddenly understands why Ash kept all of his clothes on while rinsing himself outside.

Eiji shivers and shakes before angrily locking the backdoor behind him and leaving Ash outside in the freezing cold. He sticks out his tongue at his boyfriend, making sure Ash notices that he's getting the time-out that someone with such childish behavior deserves.

Eiji steps back in the shower, letting the hot water clean off the remaining paint. He immediately puts on about three layers of warm clothes; a t-shirt, a plaid shirt and a sweater to top it all off. 

After dapping his hair dry with his towel, he goes downstairs to find Ash sitting on the kitchen counter with dried hair and clean clothes. His voice is gleaming with pride when he says, "Smart move leaving the window cracked open, dumbass."

Eiji bites the inside of his cheek in annoyance, but somewhere deep down he's glad that Ash didn't stay outside in that winter weather with wet clothes for the full nineteen minutes.

"So," Ash mumbles before jumping off the countertop with a grin. "Pizza it is?"

Eiji takes the pizza boxes and holds them against himself. They smell delicious and his mouth starts watering at just the thought of eating them, but they can't eat just yet. 

"Why do you look like you're plotting some evil scheme?" Ash asks. 

Eiji marches to the bedroom, taking the pizza boxes with him, and yells, "I have an amazing idea!" at Ash as a sign that he should follow him. They'll have to wait for hours and experiencing the cozy feeling of eating pizza on their futons while sharing a blanket and playing a family board game is a chance Eiji and Ash haven't gotten too often so far. 

Ash shuffles into the bedroom while Eiji is digging in his little suit-case, searching for the travel version of Yahtzee he brought for the long pauses in between working hard. 

"Got it!" he yells, holding up the cup, pencils, paper and ziplock bag with five dices. 

"Got what?" Ash asks while flopping onto his futon and bumping his butt onto the hard floor underneath the thin futon. 

Eiji slides his futon against Ash's and gathers the boxes of pizza and the Yahtzee on the mattresses. After doing that he grabs a fluffy blanket and drapes it around Ash and himself. 

Ash glances at Eiji with perked up eyebrows and Eiji can’t help but laugh at how confused Ash looks.

“What!?” Eiji replies before reaching for the first slice of pizza. With his mouth still full of food he adds, “You can’t disagree with me, there’s nothing more romantic than this.”

“This?” Ash gestures at the Yahtzee and the pizza crumbs on his futon and Eiji nods.

“Yes!” He explains Ash how this is _the_ way to go on a sleepover or for a second date. He goes on and on about how he always wanted to do this, but it was way too boring at his parents’ basement and he already knew America wasn’t the best time and place to curl up under a blanket.

He hands Ash a slice of pizza before taking out his phone.

Even after Eiji’s explanation and the delicious food in his hand, Ash manages to look really confused when Eiji starts taking selfies of them eating. Eiji is either really bad at explaining why this is super romantic and he’s enjoying this, or Ash is just denser than a rock when it comes to recognizing Eiji’s attempt at a cozy moment.

Eventually he does give in, Eiji has made it clear that they are going to spend the hours of waiting like this; no television or Wi-Fi, no phones at all except for snapping pictures of this perfect moment.

“So have you played this before?” Eiji’s getting everything ready for beating Ash’s ass in a nice game of Yahtzee. He hasn’t played it in years, because after getting together with Ash they’d been busy traveling around Japan for the first year and planning to get a house together for the past months.

“Oh yeah, I played it with some of the guys back in America,” Ash replies. He looks around the room, almost like he’s searching for something. “You play it with shots right?”

Eiji face-palms him and sighs; why is everything a drinking game with Ash?

“Oh.” Ash scratches the back of his head. “Or maybe you don’t.”

Eiji explains the actual rules of the game and finds out that the version that Ash and his gang played was completely different from the family-friendly Yahtzee that Eiji was taught my his parents.

Ash’s drunken version of the game had to do with taking a shot for every point you lost in the upper section, so Eiji has to make it extra clear that in this version you should make sure to get enough points per number. He also told Ash that you got points for the things like rolling a “three of a kind” or “Yahtzee” and that there are no shots with strong alcohol included.

Now that Ash knows all the rules they can finally begin. The only sad thing is that their pizza is basically cold by now, but other than that Eiji is still convinced that they can make this their little romantic afternoon.

For almost an entire game this also seems to be the case; they cuddle and take selfies in between turns and the lingering smell of pizza makes everything feel even more cozy.

This all ends when they reach the end of the game and Eiji’s has already basically won.

He almost doesn’t notice it when Ash “accidently” throws the dices a fourth time. This wouldn’t be a problem if it was a normal throw, but that isn’t the case.

“Yes!” Ash cheers. “Yahtzee!”

Eiji crosses his arms and mumbles, “You were cheating.”

“I was not!”

“Yes, you were.” Eiji tells Ash about the forth throw, and he can see in Ash’s eyes and sudden seriousness that he’s lying about not knowing a thing about it. Ash claims that he hadn’t noticed and also doesn’t remember what his previous dices said.

This leaves Eiji is anger; he really can’t take Ash’s attitude at moments like this, Eiji was on his way to winning but now Ash is in first place again.

“Come on, mister grumpy-face,” Ash says in a pouty voice. “What’s wrong? Can’t handle losing?”

Eiji frowns, because it’s not like he can’t cope with losing it’s just unfair when somebody wins because they’re cheating. He wants to play – and win – this game in a fair way.

He wraps his hands around the dices, erasing Ash’s perfect score from existence.

“Hey!” Ash shouts, reaching for the dices that are now resting in Eiji’s hands.

And lastly, to give Ash the sweet taste of what it’s like to get caught cheating during a serious game with Eiji, he tosses them at Ash’s face.

After experiencing the pain of having a dice hit your closed eyelid, Eiji gets Ash to play fair for the rest of the game. And he doesn’t even mind losing in the end, because Ash’s Yahtzee didn’t count and he didn’t cheat in any other way, so when Ash wins anyway it’s a fair victory.

As punishment for losing the game, Ash decides that Eiji has to clean up the mess they made of their bedroom. Eiji doesn’t really see this as a punishment though; Ash is used to leaving behind messes everywhere, because of his previous lifestyle, and therefore Eiji is just on a constant cleaning duty.

He puts the futons aside, throws the Yahtzee in his suit-case and throws away the empty pizza boxes.

“Eiji!” Ash’s voice sounds from the living room. “The paint had dried, so I think we might be able to clear out most of our moving boxes today.”

Eiji walks into the living room and proudly stares at their self-painted walls. They’re evenly covered and all perfect and shiny and new and, like Ash said, completely dry.

“You’re right,” Eiji agrees. “We should start unpacking right now, that way we should be done by the time it’s dark.”

It’s a strange feeling that all there’s left to do is move the furniture from the spare room to their permanent place and unpack all of their moving boxes. Only a few more hours to go and this house will officially be theirs, both on paper and in a homey kind of way.

“Well let’s start.” Ash starts walking to the spare room where all of their stuff is stored. “Do you think you’re able to slide furniture to where you want them if I lift them to the right room?”

Eiji rolls his eyes; the teasing has already started.

“I can do it myself.”

“Okay, suit yourself.” Ash shrugs, rolling up his sleeves while lifting up two of the light side tables and with that leaving the heavy furniture for Eiji to move.

Eiji too rolls up his sleeves before starting to pull the couch in the direction he wants to have it. This works alright for the first few meters, but after a while his hands feel like they’re on fire. When he looks at his palms they’re already flaming red and his shoulders are hurting from dragging this heavy couch around like this.

Ash walks past him, again carrying pretty light furniture, and shoots Eiji a teasing grin.

Eiji pushes through, he’s not giving in to Ash’s tormenting. But by the time he has the couch standing in the right spot in the living room, Eiji is too tired to even stand on his feet.

“I thought you could do this by yourself.” Ash glances at Eiji while effortlessly sliding their side tables around until they sit neatly next to the couch. “Tired already, mister noodle-arms?”

“Okay, I admit the couch was heavier than I thought.” Eiji flops down on their new couch and wipes the sweat from his forehead. He can’t go on like this, so maybe he does have to ask Ash and his stronger and taller body for help this once.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ash grins and does a superman pose before running to the spare room shouting, “Super-Ash to the rescue!”

He returns just a little later carefully carrying the television to the living room.

“Don’t sit there like that,” he tells Eiji. “You are strong enough to lift the cardboard boxes with pillows, blankets and other decoration, right?”

Eiji nods and while Ash puts the heavy furniture in place, Eiji already starts putting pillows on the couch and pictures of their journeys on side tables. He does this on his own until Ash finishes putting down the last bigger things and joins Eiji in the kitchen and living room.

“It’s so silent,” Ash complains while placing the dishes in their kitchen cabinets.

Eiji nods and replies by telling Ash that he’s right.

Eiji takes out his phone and goes to his downloaded music. It’s old music and most are actually English musical songs he used to love when he was younger, but that doesn’t matter if it means they’ll have something to make these tasks less boring.

Ash chuckles at the first song.

“‘Time of my Life’ from Dirty Dancing?” Ash asks Eiji in between giggles. “Really, Eiji?”

“Says the guy who knows both the title of the song _and_ the movie it’s from,” Eiji immediately shoots back at Ash before swaying his body to the beat. Nobody, not even Ash, is going to keep him from shamelessly dancing to one of his favorite childhood songs.

Eiji dances across the room, towards Ash who’s standing in the kitchen with a confused frown. When he’s standing right in front of Ash he grabs Ash’s hands in his. While swaying Ash’s arms along Eiji tries his best to moves his hips to the beat, even though they’re really off rhythm.

“’Cause I had the time of my life!” Eiji howls along to the high-pitched female voice. “No, I’ve never felt this way before---“ He jerks on Ash’s arms and kisses him before whispering, “Come on, just dance with me, Professor Cranky Pants.”

Eiji carefully steps backwards on the beat of the music, daring Ash to dance with him for the first time since they started dating. Or at least the first time that Eiji will actually be able to recall, because they might or might not have danced at that disco in Tokyo, but Eiji was too drunk to remember.

Ash puts his hands on his hips and rolls his eyes before awkwardly swaying his hips as well; way off beat, but that doesn’t matter in a living room dance party.

“Yes!” Eiji victoriously throws his fist in the air. “There you go, Ash!”

They dance apart from each other for a while, Ash just swinging awkwardly to the music while Eiji howls along to the lyrics on the top of his voice. But when _the_ best part of the song arrives, Eiji runs at Ash with full speed; he can’t dance to this song and not do the lift with his boyfriend.

“Ash,” Eiji shouts, his voice just sounding over the music. “Let’s do the lift, okay?”

Ash frowns and replies, “Lift? What lift?”

Eiji sighs, but doesn’t stop charging at Ash who’s visually stressing out more with every step Eiji takes. As soon as Ash’s hands wrap around Eiji’s waist, Eiji yells, “Just lift me above your head!” and Ash listens… causing an unfortunate aftermath of Eiji crashing with his head into the ceiling.

He can still feel it when they’re cuddling in their new bed that evening. Eiji’s thumping head in resting on Ash’s shoulder as he scrolls through all of the pictures Eiji made during their moving-process.

“It was the Japanese’s task to be sloppy and reckless,” Eiji mumbles. “No, but it was the _delicate_ American who smacked my head against the ceiling.”

Ash sighs, not even looking up from Eiji’s phone when he replies, “Stop being salty about that. It was your own fault after all, I wasn’t the one who literally forced the other to throw them in the air.”

Eiji gives up, they’ve been going on about Ash’s careless throw for a couple of hours now and it’s only making Eiji’s terrible headache worse. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience soaring above Ash’s head like that… before hitting his head to the ceiling of course.

Eiji watches Ash tap on the screen of Eiji’s phone in silence. It’s nice seeing Ash smile so wide like that. It’s moments like these, where Ash isn’t joking around or complaining about things, that make Eiji remember how long it took Ash to start smiling for real.

It took Ash at least four or five months to start actually smiling frequently and until three months ago, Ash would still gradually wake up screaming and crying. His past used to haunt him all the time and Eiji had to hug Ash tightly until he was deep asleep, because otherwise the traumatic events would follow him into his dreams.

But when Eiji looked at Ash now, he doesn’t see the person who’d carry a gun around and had struggles sleeping and sometimes even smiling. Eiji cannot see that Ash from the past anymore.

Instead he saw the guy who he had chosen to live his life with; the Ash who spends about sixty per cent of the day grinning, smiling or laughing and the other forty eating, sleeping or teasing his boyfriend. Now they’re living together, who knows where they are a couple of years from now.

With a smile on his face and a happy thought taking up all space in his hurting head, Eiji starts to dose off; it was a long day and he can barely keep his eyes open.

“Shit,” Ash mumbles, waking up Eiji again.

Eiji opens his eyes and when he looks at the clock he notices that he has taken a nap for a whopping five minutes; he starts to feel like someone who’s constantly woken by a newborn baby.

“What?” Eiji replies, his speech all sluggish from being worn out. “Did something happen?”

Ash gives Eiji back his phone before taking off his glasses and face-palming himself.

On Eiji’s phone the Whatsapp group chat with the Max, Ibe and Ash and Eiji lights up the screen. Eiji squints while trying to read with his tired and extremely dry eyes.

A few messages with capslock typing and frowning emojis fill up part of the screen, the other eighty per cent is what probably is the onset of a freak-out that caused a grown up like Max to use both Caps-Lock _and_ emojis in the same short message; a chain of over a hundred pictures seems to go on for forever.

“I just wanted to show them everything,” Ash explains in an apologetic tone. “All the pictures you made today were so amazing, I couldn’t just choose which ones to send, you know?”

Eiji scrolls to the never ending chain of photos, they vary from quality; some are pretty good, like the ones where Eiji was trying to get the entire living room on screen, but most are just the two of them goofing around which also means that about seventy out of the hundred pictures are blurred and really, extremely derpy pictures of Ash, Eiji or both of them being hyperactive dorks.

Ash takes a deep breath and rubs with his hand in his eyes. “How was I supposed to know that Max’s little girl was just taking a nap as I pressed send.”

“Wait, you woke up Juliet?” Eiji laughs, because he remembers how much Max was complaining about how little rest he and Jessica have gotten ever since they had their second child.

Ash chuckles almost silently before burying his face against my chest. He says something that sounds like “I didn’t mean to do that”, but his voice is muffled by Eiji’s shirt.

They lay like that for a while, both of them getting more tired with every minute that passes. Eiji plays a little with Ash hair, whispering that it’s really time to cut off the dead ends.

When Ash doesn’t reply, Eiji decides to turn off their bedside lights so both of them can sleep.

He carefully crawls under the blankets and lies on his back. Ash, who apparently is still awake enough to notice Eiji’s movement, groans and rolls onto his side. This is how they always fall asleep; Eiji lying on his back with Ash’s arms wrapped around him and his head pressing down onto Eiji’s chest. Sometimes Ash’s long hair tickles Eiji’s face a little and other nights the pressure of Ash’s head causes Eiji’s entire right arm to fall asleep earlier than the rest of his body, but they both like sleeping this way. It’s a nice and familiar feeling that still warms Eiji’s heart every single evening before he falls asleep, and now that they’re living in this house together, Eiji has the certainty of knowing that tonight will be followed by an endless amount of perfect days and night like this one.

**Author's Note:**

> After my sister and I watched the ending of Banana Fish, we decided that something needed to change!  
> Ash should first see a doctor, get healed up, and immediately after that rush to Japan to be with Eiji. First they should travel to Japan and, after that, settle in a little home of themselves. That is the happy "ending" they deserve!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it :)  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
